BP and Synthetic Genomics (La Jolla, CA), a biotech research group, have discovered bacteria more than a mile underground that can be used to convert coal into methane. Craig Venter, biologist and co-founder of Synthetic Genomics, detailed activities between the two companies at a recent research and innovation meeting at La Jolla. The discovery could open up the world’s coal fields to a new type of technology that would enable methane to be readily recovered from coal. “We and BP think we can scale up this substantially to provide a huge...